Garrett 400 for Christmas

[MackinawGirl]

I am so excited! I got a Garrett 400 metal detector and a Garrett Pin pointer from my fiance for Christmas! I love to detect with him and have been doing it for about 7 years. He used to pin point and I used to dig. I still remember the first silver I pulled out of the ground for him. The last 5 years I have had my own Garrett Ace250 and have been having a lot of fun with it but to be quite honest I watched him go twice as fast with finding the coins and rings with his pin pointer and larger coil, but it was too heavy for me. I have had to dig and dig some more to find those little buggers. I had mentioned during the last part of fall that I was going to buy a pin pointer and lightweight larger coil before next hunt season. I had actually looked in the Garrett catalog and saw the Garrett 400 and we watched some video reviews on it and I said I was going to get one of those next year too. Well....surprise.... Santa Chris put it under the tree. This is one happy Garrett Girl =) and I cannot wait to dig dig dig.

 

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[sky355]

Ha.... Congrats. Love to see folks getting excited to dig holes. Merry Christmas. Your gonna have a blast.

 

[John-Edmonton]

You got a fine, treasure finding detector! I wish you luck this year....below is a field test I did earlier this year and it is one great detector.


Putting the new Garrett ACE 400i together was just like meeting an old friend. About 10 years ago, Garrett released the New ACE 150 & ACE 250 models. The new ACE Series at that time became an overnight success. It turned out to be one of the (if not the) best metal detectors sales of all time. It received cult status. It got nicknames the "Yeller Feller" and some converted it for water hunting, calling it the Aqua Ace." Most loved the new bright colored machine, as you could never ever really lose it. But some despised the color also. They went as far as to spray paint it a new color or cover it with camo tape

Well, fast forward it to 2016, and a new Garrett ACE Series has been released. The Top of the ACE line, the "Ace 400i" has even more improvements over it's earlier production models. The new ACE 400i now has cam-locks, a request many have made to Garrett and they listened. The front of the screen now has a large digital target ID, using numbers plus target probability numbers suggesting ferrous/non ferrous conductivity. Also new is the "iron Audio" feature, available only on higher, more expensive metal detectors. This helps eliminate junk targets by designating them with a distinguishable low tone in the iron range, which might be junk, depending on what type of targets you are searching for. To help eliminate EMI (electro-magnetic-interference) Garrett has given you the option of hunting with different frequencies. This will also allow you to hunt close to your buddy by elimination his metal detector interference. And....the coils off the older ACE's work fine on the new ACE Models. So hang on to your sniper coils!






Garrett still has maintained the notching system, which is also available in the higher end AT Pro/AT Gold Series. This allows you to selectively remove junk targets so you won't hear the audio, or set it up to just hear one particular target. This comes in handy when searching for a lost earring. You can remove all notches except the one(s) sounding off on the remaining earring, then search with ease for the other earring. And......you do NOT lose more depth removing notches for unwanted targets like on other metal detectors with knobs to add discrimination, where as you advance the knob to remove further targets, where you do in fact lose depth.

To those considering the New ACE 200, 300 or 400, it is simple to use. It's well balanced and only weighs 2.9 lbs. (1.32 kg.). The length of the rod can be adjusted, depending on a persons height. It comes pre-programmed for your choices of coin mode, relic mode, jewelry mode, a custom mode (you create it, it saves it) or a setting with no discrimination so you can hear all targets. It is so simple to operate or sequence through the different programs. It operates on 4 x "AA" Batteries and readily excepts rechargeable batteries. I managed about 27 hours on the set of batteries which came with the metal detector.
To maintain a high degree of reliability with consistent results, I used the unit for 10 hunts. Anyone can go to a site not previously hunted before with any detector and do well. I chose to put on about 50 hours on it, so as I can properly learn it, and learn it's strengths and weaknesses.






Here are the results of my 10 hunts. This machine is a Super coin magnet! I started hunting in relics mode, hunting a lot of schools and sports fields. As I learned where my (Canadian) coins were reading with the VDI, I began to remove some notches. I pretty well ended up using the coins mode, as it also maintains notches where most (but not all) gold rings will read. I used my old concentric 9" x 12" coil from my old ACE 250 mostly. Bottles caps often read as good copper/silver coins, so using the iron audio can help to eliminated them. I discovered that deeper bottle caps read higher compared to more shallow ones. So......bottle caps and aluminum pull tabs remain the "Curse" for metal detector users. The square pull tabs often tend to give a strong double beep, whereas nickels have a softer single beep sound. It got so I could guess a nickel would pop up with a good probability. Hey....these things happen when the hours accumulate on a detector. One thing for sure....the ace BANGS hard on coins. Because the weak signals on the ACE are amplified so you can easily hear them, (unlike the modulated volume on the AT Series) hunting without headphones becomes easy in a quiet environment. Wireless headsets not required!






I did manage to dig up 4 rings during my hunts. You can't miss them. They hit hard! The older ACE models were very good for hitting rings, including gold ones. I didn't find any gold rings, however, I did get a solid gold football charm in a sports field! That was a first!






Here are some pieces of jewelry I dug up. If the jewelry is there, the ACE will find it no doubt.






My last 3 hours metal detecting were done in a freshwater lake. Because only the coil is water proof, I hunted just the beginnings of the freshwater lake. I notched out nearly everything except where gold rings might show up. That left only 4, sometimes 5 notches left on the screen. I had built up my confidence with this machine that any old silver coins/rings or older copper coins would easily be hit on. I got pennies in the 40's on up, but no rings today.






My thoughts.......A great detector for coin/jewelry hunting. It also performs well hunting relics. It has too much power! I could not hunt with full sensitivity....a first for me. All my other detectors could operate with full sensitivity in the woods, but not the new ACE! It bangs hard on targets....even very tiny ones. This machine would do well on the beaches dry sand or shallow fresh water searching for micro jewelry. When hunting in shallow water, PLEASE remember to tether the machine so it can not accidentally fall in the water if you drop it.

The depth indicator id fairly accurate with coin sized targets. I did pull out an old tag at bout 8 inches. It performs well for depth in my soil. I wish I could try it on a wet salted beach in/out of the water, but the nearest beach is 14 hours away. I hunted an afternoon without using any headsets, and I could easily hear the audio and distinguish the soft signals from the loud double beeps. I didn't like detecting with the iron audio left on, rather, I used it to help identify a target. Running the iron audio on all the time and getting a good audio on a target added confusion as to dig or not. A little trick I learned was that trying to pinpoint a large target is very difficult. Pop cans were easy to ID because of this. This allowed me to just move on to a better target saving time.

It is an excellent entry level detector, with lots of bells & whistles seen on many higher priced detector. It's simple to use, easy to learn, and depending on your goals for metal detecting, may be the only machine you might ever need, yet, you can easily move up to a more elaborate expensive model in the Garrett line. For a metal detectorist with over 20 years of experience, the ACE 400 is an excellent machine for coin and jewelry hunting! And......it will not sit in the closet collecting dust. Every metal detector I own has it's strengths in certain niches.

Some Actual Field Hunt Videos To Compiment The Garrett ACE 400i

ACE 400i Water Hunt
How To Increase Your Finds
ACE 400i Relic Hunt

 

[Andy Nunez]

I'm with John. I had the 350 and loved it, but as soon as the 400 came out, I had to snag one and I am so glad I did. The thing is great for sniffing out deeper silver and I got my first capped bust dime ever with it (after 30 years of hunting). I recently boosted its potential with a Cors Cannon coil and the depth is great. Trash separation is an issue with big coils but I dig a lot of fiends where stuff isn't real jumbled up, so the extra coverage and depth is a plus. I got a nice seated dime the other month that turned the rest of the club a green penny patina color. While I haven't gotten any super-deep silver, I did go 9 inches on a wheat penny in an old yard, which was the deepest coin I have dug in a long, long time. I feel I can go head to head with the Pros now, and after some trial and error, you can too.

 

[MackinawGirl]

I am excited for the weather to turn warm. I have found lots of silver coins and a couple of rings with my 250 but I know..I can feel it...I am going to find gold this year!

 

[MackinawGirl]

I'm with John. I had the 350 and loved it, but as soon as the 400 came out, I had to snag one and I am so glad I did. The thing is great for sniffing out deeper silver and I got my first capped bust dime ever with it (after 30 years of hunting). I recently boosted its potential with a Cors Cannon coil and the depth is great. Trash separation is an issue with big coils but I dig a lot of fiends where stuff isn't real jumbled up, so the extra coverage and depth is a plus. I got a nice seated dime the other month that turned the rest of the club a green penny patina color. While I haven't gotten any super-deep silver, I did go 9 inches on a wheat penny in an old yard, which was the deepest coin I have dug in a long, long time. I feel I can go head to head with the Pros now, and after some trial and error, you can too.

Andy.. We just watched you dig a Colonial on youtube with The Hoover Boys #72 Dream Hunt with your new Ace400.

 

[Andy Nunez]

Andy.. We just watched you dig a Colonial on youtube with The Hoover Boys #72 Dream Hunt with your new Ace400.

Yes, well, that was just the start. Since getting that 1776 KG III, I have gotten numerous buttons, a capped bust dime and a seated liberty dime plus a couple of modern silver quarters, a silver brooch and a Civil War artillery button. The Ace 400 is at least 80% the power of the AT-Pro (manual ground balance and pro-zero mode give the Pro the edge) unless you have to have waterproofing, and adding a big coil to it will give you equality against the Pro Stock coil. My next upgrade will probably be the Z-Lynk wireless system, then a 5 x 8 coil for trashy areas. Glad you enjoyed the video. That coin was six inches deep. I love the big coil for field hunting, though, as I said earlier. The young kids cover ground pretty fast, so the extra size on the coil helps me keep up.

 

[digger93]

what is the difference between the 400 and the 400i..?

 

[John-Edmonton]

what is the difference between the 400 and the 400i..?

The ACE International has an expanded iron range, more suited for foreign hunting, especially in the UK. The US version is designed for US coins and relics.

 

[digger93]

cool, I am going to order the ACE 400 taday. I live in Granbury Tx and there is a lot of Civil War camp grounds in the area. I live on 1 ac. in Acton and my back yard has a Indian camp ground on in. I have a creek that flows thru it and I have found a few arrow heads and corn grinders. Can't wait to get out there....